During a campaign stop for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, former President Barack Obama ripped into Republican candidate Ed Gillespie’s Trumpian embrace of anti-immigrant smear ads, saying that what Gillespie’s “really trying to deliver is fear … it’s just as cynical as politics gets”:
“We have seen this so many times before,” said Obama, who spent five minutes tearing into the strategy. “You’ve got the advertisement. There is some ominous voice. Everything is kind of dark. Just letting you know that somebody is coming to get you. That our values are at risk if you vote for Ralph. They don’t really tell you exactly why. We have seen it before. And it is a tactic that shows Ralph’s opponent does not think highly of Virginians.”
“I don’t think that someone who spent his life performing surgery on soldiers and children is suddenly cozying up to street gangs,” Obama continued, referencing Northam’s background as a former Army doctor and pediatric neurologist. “That strains credulity. That sounds like a fib. Sounds like an okey-doke. Nobody believes that.” But Gillespie, trying to slash Northam’s lead in the polls, is hoping they do.
Anti-immigrant fearmongering is a tactic that Gillespie once criticized as “a political siren song,” but as Carolyn Fiddler wrote, “now he’s singing it.” One recent Gillespie ad has been criticized both for its bald-faced lying—Gillespie tries to pin gangs and sanctuary cities on Northam even though Virginia has no sanctuary cities—and Willie Horton-style racist imagery, featuring a stolen image of scary looking brown men who in actuality are incarcerated gang members in El Salvador.
Don’t let Gillespie get away with this racist strategy. Donate $3 to help elect Ralph Northam governor of Virginia.
And as the former president noted, the border is more secure than ever—largely due to his work and the work of his predecessor—but candidates like Donald Trump and Gillespie have resorted to trying to scare white voters in order to whip up votes:
“Look, we all have valid concerns about crime,” Obama said. “We have legitimate concerns and even legitimate differences of how to manage immigration in a way that is orderly and fair. But the fact is crime and illegal immigration are as low as they’ve been in decades. And Ralph’s opponent knows it. He has gone on record in the past, condemning the same kind of rhetoric that he’s using right now.”
Tactics that Republicans can’t seem to let go of. Former President George W. Bush received plenty of media praise for his “point-by-point rejection of Trumpism” during a speech this week, but just days ago, he was campaigning for Gillespie and his Trumpism. Some takedown.
“What he’s really trying to deliver is fear,” Obama continued about Gillespie. “What he really believes is if you scare enough voters, you might score just enough votes to win an election. It’s just as cynical as politics gets.”